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Travelling With Style

Fashion world is also a way to visit foreign countries, get closer to unknown cultures and maybe learn some new languages. Some people believe that “haute couture” and “alta moda” are expressions that can only be inflected in French or in Italian, but we just need to take a look to the list of companies which associated to Ticinomoda (the association which gathers the main fashion industries in the territory, www.ticinomoda.ch) to see how they can be wrong.

The first destination is a tricky one: let’s go to Los Angeles, but following a Moroccan-born American family called Marciano. Two of their members, Paul and Maurice, founded the headquarters of Guess at the beginning of the Eighties while their Europe department is based in Bioggio, near Lugano.

Let’s go to east and to another big city: New York. We have still to speak English, sacrificing (unfortunately) Arabic and Amazigh (Berber). Michael Kors was in fact born and bred in the Big Apple, and today his Swiss headquarters are located in our Manno, some hundreds of meters from the above mentioned Bioggio.

Crossing the Atlantic Ocean, we arrive to a luxury fashion house called Hugo Boss which was founded in 1924 in Metzingen, south-west of Germany. We can then speak some German there, while Hugo Boss Ticino SA was founded in 1955 in Coldrerio, near Mendrisio; its line of business includes the wholesale distribution of men’s and boys’ apparel and furnishings.

Finally, Italy. Italy and Italian. Gucci was founded in Florence and it is now represented in Ticino by Kering (Luxury Goods), while Ermenegildo Zegna has its Swiss Italian counterpart in Consitex. It does not matter if you want to visit their Italian headquarters or their Ticinese branches, because – guess what: you can continue to learn and to speak Italian also beyond the borders. Even here at the Festival del film Locarno, if you want. Va bene?